All the Devils' hottest news, from notes to numbers to neutral-zone traps

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Defenseman Adam Larsson left today's morning skate early, but insisted he's "OK" to play in tonight's game in Nashville.

"I'm OK," he said. "I wanted to feel OK for tonight. So, I just do what is best for me."

Larsson took a shot off his foot in Thursday's 2-1 shootout win over Los Angeles, but still played 24:59 and took part in Friday's practice (though he did fall down a couple of times).

Larsson acknowledged that he was hit in foot, but said, "It will be fine."

***The Devils will make one lineup change tonight, inserting Eric Boulton at left wing on the fourth line for Rod Pelley. Boutlon as a healthy scratch on Thursday. Mark Fraser will remain a healthy scratch on defense.

So, here's the Devils' full lineup tonight with projected line combinations and defense pairs:

***Tonight's game will be the Devils first on the road of the season after they played their first three at Prudential Center and went 2-1-0.

"I think guys are excited," DeBoer said. "I'm excited to get on the road and get away from Newark for a night. We didn't go really anywhere during the preseason, so it's nice to get in the hotel and get a good meal. Not that my wife's not a good cook. I'll take that back. Sorry honey...I think everyone was excited to get away as a group, spend the night together. There's nothing like the road for spending time with the guys. You just don't get an opportunity to do that at home."

***Other subjects DeBoer discussed this morning:

On the Predators: “They’re harder (to play) in that they don’t beat themselves and they play hard every night. They’re hard on the puck carrier and those two defensemen (Shea Weber and Ryan Suter) are as good as any in the world as a pair. They make you earn their goals against them. Those guys are dangerous all the time they’re on the ice, jumping into the play. It’s a team that doesn’t beat itself, so we’re going to have to come out and earn a win.”

On adjusting to Predators: “I think at this point in the year, we’re really concentration on our game. We’re spending some time on what Nashville is going to show us. But I think this time of year, you look around the league, probably 80 percent of the coach’s time with his team is on their own structure and making sure you’re playing the right way.”

On double-shifting Ilya Kovaclhuk (who played 29:37 on Thursday): "We've had tight games and they've been tight early or we've been behind early. So, I think the way the games have unfolded, there have been situations where we needed him more involved either to create some more offense or get us going. We haven't played with the lead much early in the season here. The way the games have unfolded it's a situation where he's going to get an opportunity to do that throughout the year as is Zach (Parise) at different points. Those are capable of 20-plus minutes in my mind, especially when the schedule is light like it is now. We're not playing back-to-back. We've got time off between games. It's set up that it allows us to do that.

On Larsson's ice time (leads Devils defenseman with 23:46 per game): "It speaks of our confidence in him and what he's been able to do so far. He's been fantastic so far. This is going to get tougher and tougher as the league gets better and better, but he seems capable of handling everything we've thrown at him. Again, the scheduled has allowed us early here to play some guys minutes that we might not be able to play them in January and February when we're playing 16, 17 games in a month."

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.